Are Fewer People Reading for Fun? New Study Reveals Bookworms Might Be Going Extinct

Is reading for fun going the way of the dinosaur? A new study finds that Americans are now less likely to pick up a book.

Settling down with a good read was once a popular pastime, but according to an Aug. 20 study published in the journal iScience, conducted by researchers from the University of Florida and University of College London, that is no longer be the case.

Researchers pulled national data spanning 2003-2023 from the American Time User Survey, which asked Americans how they spent their days. The study found that the number of Americans who reported that they read for enjoyment declined from 28 percent in 2004 to just 16 percent in 2023.

The study defined reading as also encapsulating formats like magazines, e-books, print and electronic newspapers and audiobooks.

While there were no definitive answers for why reading habits declined, the study’s authors suggested that social media, along with “the replacement of reading by other media” may be contributing factors. They also found that people in the U.S. are reading less fiction, preferring to read books that “fulfill practical needs.”

Researchers also found that, of the more than 236,000 people surveyed, individuals with higher incomes were more likely to read for pleasure than those with lower incomes, higher-educated people were more likely to read than the least-educated people and women were more likely to consistently read than men.

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There’s also troubling news for bedtime. The study found that despite more than 20 percent of the people surveyed having a child under 9 years old, only 2 percent of them read books with the child. A 2019 study published by The Journal of Pediatrics determined that reading with children early could positively impact vocabulary skills and development.

“Even though reading is often thought of as more of an individual activity, when we read stories, we actually form connections with characters,” Dr. Daisy Fancourt, a co-author of the iScience study, told The New York Times. “The empathy that we feel for them is actually real, and these connections with characters can be ways that we can feel less alone, that we can feel socially and emotionally validated.”

Ultimately, the researchers wrote that their findings were “concerning,” especially since reading has “wide-ranging benefits” like relieving stress and helping to expand one’s worldview.

“Our findings thus demonstrate the urgent need for more targeted strategies to increase opportunities for reading for the whole population, and particularly among high-risk groups,” the study stated.

“Continuing to monitor daily leisure reading levels, as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics influencing reading, will be vital to understand the impacts of future policies.”